City of Boston teams up with edX to create BostonX

The City of Boston has teamed with edX to create BostonX. It will offer free online college courses throughout the city. And it will make MOOCs (massive open online courses) available at community colleges and libraries throughout the city.

BostonX is still in its infancy but the city hopes to make MOOCs more available and accessible to residents and visitors. Boston's Mayor Thomas Menino envisions neighborhoods as "mini campuses" around the city. He believes that this will only increase the city's impact and standing on the nation and world as at the forefront of education.

Anant Agarwal, edX's president, sees BostonX as a huge boon for online learning and the start of an open movement and revolution. The fact that Boston is home to numerous colleges and universities (both private and public) makes the innovative venture and partnership a logical place to start. It's only a matter of time until Cambridge, MA, the city across the Charles River from Boston and home to Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), enters a partnership with edX too. In fact, Agarwal is already in talks with the city of Cambridge, MA. Likewise Boston's Mayor Menino is already in talks with other cities, including Cambridge, across the country and around the world to implement similar partnerships in theirs.